How do people not understand how to use traffic circles? I guess I was blessed by growing up in Seattle. I know how to go around a circular obstruction in the road. Whether on bike or in a vehicle, you simply go around the circle – on it’s right side.

The end. Controversy over.

As an aside, traffic circles are wonderful! No need for stop signs when a traffic circle is at every intersection. The problem with the one in the Richmond? There’s only one. It’s pretty though. I rode past it shortly after they installed it. Now, if only SF can figure out that installing more is good.

oiseaux

Also, another asideL The traffic circle in the Richmond is still not wide enough t actually calm the traffic. Small intersection + wide enough traffic circle = good.

Gneiss

On the People Behaving Badly segment, once again it’s the traffic engineers rather than drivers who have messed this up. It still amazes me how poorly our city traffic engineers (or their contractors) execute on simple US non-standard design elements like traffic circles. Here are some things that they could learn by looking at how Europeans install these structures in urban streetscapes:

1. Create raised crossings with highly visible crosswalk paint at the crosswalk parts of the intersection *before* entry to the traffic circle.

2. Make the traffic circle wide enough so drivers are forced to make turning deviation that slows their speed down.

3. Place ‘Yield’ signs at all four corners, not have two way stop signs and no signage going the other way.

For all the time and money we spend on our city employees, you’d think they’d be able to get this kind of stuff right the first time.

mikesonn

This is the same reason the traffic circles “failed” on Page. Frustrating.

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Word On The Street

“The fact we cannot say definitively that ticketing cyclists for not making full and complete stops necessarily decreases injuries or otherwise reduces collisions gets to the very heart of the issue: Sanford's impending crackdown is not data-driven...
And all the while, this crackdown will better enable motorists near and far to continue, without consequences, to commit the five traffic violations that the data clearly shows us are causing the greatest harm to the most road users.
Bias, bias, bias.”